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I would like a bit of motivation to watch intellectually interesting movies more often. I do believe it's time we started a GWJ movie club with a film of the week! The film of the week will go up each Monday. For now, I will choose the film, but I hope that people will participate, and I won't have to be the one to choose each week. Films are required to be available on Hulu+ as part of the Criterion Collection or on Netflix. We could make an exception for a special case. Any film that's intellectually stimulating is fair game for the pick of the week.

It's a little late, but the pick for Monday, July 22, 2013, is Seven Samurai. There are a couple reasons for picking this. First, I ordered the Blu-ray this weekend, and it should show up soon. Second, most people will have seen it, but it's always a good one to watch again. Lastly, I didn't want to pick anything too out there to start things off.

You have until next Monday to watch it. That gives everyone the whole week and weekend to make a time to watch it. Also, I'm hoping that people will look forward to the announcement each Monday. Everyone's goal should be to write a short paragraph with some thoughts on the film before the next film's announcement. A screencap from your favorite scene would also be great, although you may want to link it so as not to spoil anything. There's no need to use spoiler tags unless it's a less common movie that most people haven't seen. I'll specify when naming the movie if spoiler tags are required. For Seven Samurai, spoiler tags are not required.

Seven Samurai is available to watch via Hulu+. Hulu+ costs 8 bucks a month, but you can get a free trial to get started.

There's room for this to evolve. Suggestions are welcome. Even if nobody decides to join in on the fun, I'll keep doing it because it will motivate me to watch a good film each week. I'll probably update this OP a bit tomorrow to clean things up.

OG_Slinger, those are great thoughts. After reading those thoughts and others, I realize that The Lady Eve is more of an anti Golden Age Romantic Comedy. Personally, I find it as amusing or more so than many with 2 strong leads that have great chemistry. I have seen all the movies you mentioned, so I completely get the viewpoint. Double Indemnity is in my top 5 for Film Noir, so that'll come up eventually. I think I saw that it was on Netflix.

Anyways, I hope it was valuable to watch for those that did in that it was a bit atypical for that era. I was first introduced to it in a film class. The professor was a bit obsessed with the history of Hollywood censorship and whatnot, so that was probably we he was a big fan.

When we next do a classic Hollywood romantic comedy, I promise that it will be more "classic." I already know of one on Hulu+. There is a specific one I wish was on Netflix but isn't. I'll be able to find something I'm sure.

I might watch Stagecoach tonight, but I may just save it for the weekend.

Firefly was lovingly described by Joss as Stagecoach... in space... with a whore. :D

So, I've actually been waiting a long time to really respond to this. This statement tends to exemplify old films as "more simple." In actuality, one of the main characters of Stagecoach is a prostitute. So, as much as I love Joss Whedon, I really despise that quote. There are many old films that at least address the issues of sex and prostitution. They always have to deal with censorship, though.

So I watched it last night and wasn't wowed by it. I admire the craft that went into it but didn't really get into it that much.

Random thoughts:
- I really want to strangle the stagecoach driver every time he opened his mouth.
- I was kind of disappointed by the character progression.
- I like how the movie was progressive in some ways. The hispanic inn operator with the appache wife for example but then it turns around and has a faceless indian horde that attacks a stagecoach at any cost.
- And speaking of the Indian's raid was it really for the Appaches to send every man after a single stage coach? And after the first ten of the got shot down wouldn't they have rethought their strategy?
- The doctor's arc was a bit confusing. First he's a drunk, suddenly his skills are needed so he sobers up, he saves the day and then goes right back to the bottle. I was kind of hoping he might progress or something.

Director: Avie Luthra
Writer: Avie Luthra
Notable Actors: Sihle Dlamini, Jayashree Basavaraj, and James Ngcobo
Synopsis (Film Website): LUCKY is a South African feature length film about a ten-year-old South African orphan who leaves his Zulu village to make his own life in the city...only to find no one will help him, except a formidable Indian woman called Padma.

It's available to watch on Netflix. I randomly ran across this looking for film-of-the-week candidates. It seems like it might be quite good. I don't know much about it, so I hope it's not a dud.

I would love for someone else to pick next week's film! PM me if you are interested. After this week, I think the pick can go in pretty much any direction desired.

So, Stagecoach. I'll admit I went into expecting to hate it because I'm not really a big fan of Westerns nor do I like the machismo (and stilted acting) of John Wayne. Ninety some odd minutes later, I was surprised to find that I didn't hate the movie, and, in fact, I kinda liked it.

I'm not saying it was a great movie. Not by a long shot. I mean the movie treated the Indians as a one dimensional, characterless threat who were simply there to move the story forward and provide a little gratuitous action and it was just as guilty as every other Western for promoting a version of the history of the West that never, ever existed. But I digress.

What I liked about Stagecoach were the little moments that have inspired other filmmakers or that they have taken and refined to perfection.

Spoiler:

One of those was during the attack on the stagecoach when one of the Indians jumped over to the stagecoach horses and tried to slow them down. He was shot and fell underneath and between them and was run over. I immediately thought of the scene in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy is trying to chase down the convoy of trucks carrying the Ark. I don't know if every Western did the same stunt as Stagecoach did, but I definitely could see that same spirit captured by Spielberg.

I really enjoyed the supporting cast of characters. It's no wonder that Thomas Mitchell won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role of Doc Boone. Andy Devine was great as Buck, the stagecoach driver (annoying voice and all), and he instantly reminded me of Slim Pickens from Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles. In fact, Slim Pickens actually played Buck in the 1966 remake of Stagecoach. I thought that the Hatfield character was written just to be the big, bad banker guy, but I broke out laughing when he went on his rant in the stagecoach.

Spoiler:

Not to take it to P&C land, but, in 1939 he basically ran through modern-day GOP talking point bingo in his rant: the government should reduce taxes, the government should stand aside and let businesses do their thing, a businessman should be in charge of the government, and, my favorite, there was too much government debt.

I'm glad I watched Stagecoach. I think it captured the essence of the Western genre even though it didn't have everything, like a showdown at the center of town at high noon. But I think it helped show that there was more to the genre than what had been there throughout the 30s.

And, one last thing.

Spoiler:

Do they just keep a huge ass box of rocks on the stagecoach so they can throw them at the horses? Practically every scene someone's chucking rocks at the horses to get the moving faster or make them ford a stream. Maybe they should have used a smaller box for rocks and a bigger one for ammo considering they ran out of bullets during the big fight scene, but Curly still had a bunch of rocks he was flinging at the horses.

Yonder wrote:

At this point striking the Pope once with a sword is a completely reasonable action.

Not to take it to P&C land, but, in 1939 he basically ran through modern-day GOP talking point bingo in his rant: the government should reduce taxes, the government should stand aside and let businesses do their thing, a businessman should be in charge of the government, and, my favorite, there was too much government debt.

Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, there are issues with it, but it's definitely worth watching for the influence it had on the genre and Hollywood in general. There are better westerns out there, I just watched 3:10 to Yuma which I think is a bit more interesting. There's a lot more psychological stuff going on. Not sure if we'll ever get to that because it isn't streaming anywhere. I highly recommend picking up the Criterion Collection edition of that because it's an insanely good transfer. The writer of the original story, Elmore Leonard, actually died today. He wrote a lot of stories that were used by Hollywood. RIP.

Ultimately, I think the genre peaks as an art form with the Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns. Those westerns are so good.

Well, Lucky as film of the week is now officially delayed to #6. In honor of a GWJ member's passing, the #5 film of the week is now Departures. It's the best movie about death that I've ever seen. I need to watch it tonight. Tears will be shed. Crap, I'm tearing up right now. Not a good day.

So, Lucky is this week's film at #6. The info is a few posts up. Things will be back to normal next Monday. If anyone wants to pick film #7, just PM me. Otherwise, I'll pick something Criterion off of Hulu+. I'm thinking Russian...

It was a bit of a letdown. It just falls a bit flat. For some reason, it was hard to feel empathy for the main character. You compare it to something like Beasts of the Southern Wild which is a similar movie in some ways, and it doesn't really measure up as far as the main character goes.

Well, I finished it just now. This'll have been the second time I've seen it. Holy hell, I forgot how depressing the 2nd half of the movie is. This film is still jaw dropping in how real and modern it is. The actors feel so real. I could easily imagine watching some special features and seeing all of the actors in crisp color 1080p being interviewed and talking about how it was fun to do a movie in the style of a 1920s silent film.

It's fun that I finished the movie on the day that the Boardwalk Empire series premier will air. I could easily imagine any of the actors being swapped from Pandora's Box to Boardwalk Empire or vice versa.

Gah, I likely won't be getting to this one soon. The past couple weeks I've had the epiphany that yes, I do love video games, and have been absorbing them like Kirby. My movie-watching time is either spent watching Once Upon a Time or relaxing with my roommate (we're on a Kevin Smith kick lately, especially since he hasn't seen Clerks or Chasing Amy (both of which are on Netflix (and the latter being one of Kevin Smith's best, I think, so perhaps a consideration for Film of the Week mayhaps?))

I haven't seen Chasing Amy in forever. I initially watched it visiting a couple friends at college in Canada. While they were in class, I watched a VHS copy of it. We'll have to do that as a movie soon, especially since Batman is one of the main actors in it.

If you are on a gaming kick, spend the time doing that! I struggle with getting in the mood for gaming these days. Watching movies or TV is a bit more passive and relaxing to me.

I actually have a fun Netflix movie in mind for the coming week that's not particularly artsy. I think it will appeal to many people quite a bit. It actually hasn't come up in the Hidden-Gems thread surprisingly. I started watching it a couple days ago and ended up watching the whole thing because it was quite good.